So I couldn't resist replying because my background leaves me uniquely positioned to do so - I went to HS in Kansas and many of my years-long classmates in middle/high school went on to enroll in KU's undergrad honors program while I went to MIT for undergrad.
Nice to see another Jayhawker on this board. We actually agree on most things. Elite schools have students that are considerably more talented than the average State U student, and offer better job prospects and a better network. I would have attended Caltech if it was affordable at the time.
While these high school colleagues of mine were unquestionably bright, it also was true that it wasn't difficult for me to stand out amongst them throughout my secondary school career (and some of these ended up being the 'top' performers at the KU honors program). The undergrad students at MIT, however, (emphasis on undergrad) were at a whole different level. That's not to say that every single student I encountered at MIT was brilliant, but I had never been in 'shock and awe' at someone's abilities before arriving there.
It's funny. That's exactly what I was hoping from MIT but was disappointed when I didn't get it. Many MIT grads are obviously quite bright. Having lived in the Boston area for about 20 years, I know several hundred of them through school, or work, and there are about 10 in my neighborhood.
Yet the single brightest person I have ever met to this day was in my honors cohort at KU, which consisted of the 1% of incoming students, (and I struggled to keep up with them). This particular person was an anomaly in his family. His parents never attended college, and thought he should go to community college! After landing at KU, he became president of a couple of groups, had an incredible gift of picking up languages, and later became a Marshall scholar. Oh and he had a perfect GPA through high school, undergrad (Electrical Engineering), and I would bet through grad school as well, even though I barely saw him study.
